Discovered - Four hidden lakes draining below West Antarctica's Thwaites glacier

Research shows that Thwaites Glacier on the edge of West Antarctica is sliding unstoppably into the ocean, mainly due to warmer seawater lapping at its underside.

Image credit: Ben Smith/University of Washington

New Delhi: Researchers using data from the European Space Agency's CryoSat-2 satellite have identified a sudden drainage of large pools below West Antarctica's Thwaites glacier.

Research shows that Thwaites Glacier - is already one of the planet's fastest-moving glaciers - on the edge of West Antarctica is sliding unstoppably into the ocean, mainly due to warmer seawater lapping at its underside.

In a study, researchers from the University of Washington (UW) and the UK's University of Edinburgh reported finding four interconnected lakes drained during the eight-month period from June 2013 and January 2014. The glacier sped up by about 10 percent during that time, showing that the glacier's long-term movement is fairly oblivious to trickles at its underside.

"This was a big event, and it confirms that the long-term speed-up that we're observing for this glacier is probably driven by other factors, most likely in the ocean," said corresponding author Ben Smith, a glaciologist with the UW's Applied Physics Laboratory, on Sunday.

"The water flow at the bed is probably not controlling the speed."

The authors used a new technique to discover drops at the glacier's surface of up to 70 feet, over a 20 km by 40 km area.

Calculations show it was likely due to the emptying of four interconnected lakes far below. The peak drainage rate was about 240 cubic metres, per second, the largest melt-water outflow yet reported for subglacial lakes in this region.

The study supports previous UW research from 2014 showing that Thwaites glacier will likely collapse within 200 to 900 years to cause seas to rise by 2 feet.

The new findings were published February 8 in The Cryosphere.

(With IANS inputs)